Would you turn with me to Exodus
chapter 25? Exodus chapter 25. I'm going to preach this evening
on the mercy seat. God's holiness is most real. I don't know how
else to say that. His holiness has something to
do with his hatred of sin. God's holiness is most real. And my sin is most real. Now how can this holy God Have
anything to do with me? That's my question. Now, would
you look at verse 22 of Exodus chapter 25? And there. At the mercy seat. I will meet with thee. And I will. commune with thee
from above the mercy seat from between the two cherubims which
are upon the ark of the testimony of all things which I will give
thee in commandment unto the children of Israel. Now we read
in that opening scripture that God actually dwells between the
cherubims at the mercy seat. There at the mercy seat The infinite,
immutable, holy, sovereign God will meet with the sinner and
actually have communion with him where he speaks to that sinner
and that sinner speaks to him and is heard. there is a real
and true communion. Now, this mercy seat was the
lid over the ark. You've heard the term, the mercy
seat, and the word signifies a covering, a covering, a covering
over the ark. Now, in the New Testament, this
Hebrew word, mercy seat, is translated by three different words. First,
it's translated the mercy seat, And it's also translated a propitiation. And it's also translated a reconciliation. This one word has that idea in
all of its fullness, a covering, a mercy seat, a propitiation. We're going to consider what
that means and a reconciliation. Now turn with me for a moment
to Psalm 32. I talked about my sin being most
real. Well, in this psalm that David
is writing, he had two real sins on his mind. He wasn't just giving
a general confession about feeling bad about how he was by nature. That's part of the confession
of sin, no doubt about it, but he had two particular sins on
his mind. David had been guilty of adultery. And he had been guilty of premeditated
murder. And this is the man after God's
own heart. And yet he was guilty of these two great sins. Now, can you imagine how you
would feel if you had these sins on your heart? Well, you do have
them there. You do have them there. If not actually, you've
committed these, I've committed these, but David literally committed
them. I mean, now I've never murdered
anybody physically. Can you imagine what he was going
through? And he writes this song when the Lord has told him that
his sin has been put away. Remember Nathan came and told
him your sin has been put away. And David says, blessed is he
whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is
no guile. Now, these horrible sins, all
sins horrible, I realize that, but we're just talking about
these two sins David committed. I mean, all of his sins were
put away, we realize that, but this is what was on his mind.
But he says, blessed is he whose sin is forgiven. Forgiven. Blessed is he whose iniquity
is covered. And his covering, is different
from our covering. Now, I've got a quarter in my
hand. I've got a quarter in my hand. I take a handkerchief and
I put it over it. It's covered, isn't it? You can't
see that quarter, can you? But is it still there? Sure,
it's still there. But when the Lord covers sin,
he covers sin in such a way as to where it's not still there,
only covered, but it's not there anymore. It's not there. Now, I'm interested in that,
aren't you? Well, how could that be? How could it be that he could
cover my sin to the point that it's not there anymore and it's
really not there? I mean, it's gone, it's put away.
Well, here's how. Blessed is he whose transgression
is forgiven, whose iniquity is covered. Blessed is the man to
whom the Lord will not impute his iniquity, his sin. Now, how
is it that God cannot charge me with my sin if I've sinned?
because he charged my sin to his blessed son, and it became
his. My sin was punished, but it was
punished in my substitute, in my redeemer, and his perfect
righteousness is mine. Therefore, when he covers my
sin, it is no more." Isn't that wonderful? You know, I was going
over my notes, thinking about what is being taught from this
passage of Scripture, and I thought, This is almost too good to be
true. I mean, I really don't have any sin, and I feel my sin. I know something about my sin,
but before God, when God looks at me, when he looks at every
believer, he sees somebody without sin. That takes faith to believe
that, doesn't it? It's not something you can see.
It's something you must believe. This is what this covering does. Now, the Old Testament illustration
of this was the scapegoat on the Day of Atonement. Remember,
there were two goats. One was a sacrificial goat. It
was put to death. And the other one, the priest
would put his hands on its head, and that would signify the transference
of guilt. The sins of the people came onto
that scapegoat, and it was led by the hand of a fit man into
the wilderness. And I think this fit man is the
Lord Jesus Christ. Who else is the fit man? But
this fit man leads this goat into the wilderness and he comes
and he leads it into a land not inhabited and he comes back without
the goat. It's gone. It's in a land uninhabited. Now the ark represents the person
of Christ and the mercy seat represents the work of Christ
and the person of Christ. cannot be known apart from the
work of Christ. And the work of Christ cannot
be understood apart from knowing the person of Christ. Now, what
is the word that we would use to describe the work of Christ?
What's the word the Bible uses? The cross. The cross of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, I want to show you a scripture
in Galatians 6. This is very familiar, but it's such a wonderful
scripture. Galatians chapter 6. Verse 14. But God forbid that I should
glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. By. What? He doesn't say by which
he's talking about the cross. He doesn't say by which the world
is crucified into me and I into the world. He says, by whom? By whom? The world is crucified
unto me and I unto the world. You know this ark, we talked
about that last week, the ark of the covenant. This ark was
not complete without the mercy seat. Christ is eternally known
by His work. And you can't separate the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ and His salvation. What His precious
blood accomplished. Now let's go back to our text
in Exodus chapter 25. beginning in verse 17. And thou shalt make a mercy seat, a covering, a propitiation, a
reconciliation. And this mercy seat is made of
pure gold. We don't read where the wood
was used for this. It was nothing but gold. And
this tells us that it's nothing but divine, this mercy seat,
this propitiation. Two cubits and a half shall be
the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof.
Same size as the ark fits on top of it. Thou shalt make two
cherubims of gold of beaten work. Thou shalt make them in the two
ends of the mercy seat, and make one cherub on the one end, and
the other cherub on the other end, even of the mercy seat,
shall ye make the cherubims on the two ends thereof, and the
cherubims shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering
the mercy seat with their wings, and their faces shall look one
to another toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubims
be." And that's the same place where to look, the mercy seat,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And thou shalt put the mercy
seat above the ark, and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony
that I shall give thee, and there I will meet with thee. And I will commune with thee. Now I want to meet with the Lord,
don't you? I want to have his presence and I want to commune
with him. God says, I'll meet you there,
there and there only. I'll commune with you. I'll speak
with you and you'll speak with me there. Nowhere else. There. No way else. The mercy
seat. Now, if God is going to meet
with us and commune with us, it is only at the mercy seat. Now, let's see what the New Testament
teaches us about this mercy seat. Would you turn with me to Hebrews
chapter 9? Hebrews chapter 9. Verse 5. And over it, talking about the
Ark of the covenant over it, the cherubims of glory, shadowing
the mercy seat of which we cannot now speak particularly the mercy
seat. Now would you turn to Romans
chapter three? Romans chapter three. Verse 25. whom God hath set forth to be
a propitiation through faith in his blood. Now you see that
word propitiation? That is the same word that's
translated in Hebrews chapter 9 verse 5, a mercy seat. God had set forth Christ to be
a mercy seat, to be a propitiation. Now what in the world is a propitiation?
That's a big word. It's not a word that we normally
use. We don't hear it much, but it is a biblical word. And it's
a very important word. What is a propitiation? It is the act of God. Now listen
real carefully. With the Lord's help, we're going
to hear the gospel tonight. This is the gospel. I want to
hear the gospel, don't you? It is the act of God. It's not
something man does. It's the act of God where he
gives his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Now, through the
death of Christ, here's what a propitiation does. He removes
our guilt. He removes Our sin, he removes
his reason for anger. He is reconciled through this
propitiation. He doesn't have a reason to be
mad at you. Now, how many times today have you thought the Lord
had a reason to be angry with you? I bet quite a few. Some thought
goes through your mind, some motive, some action. You've had
plenty of reason to think the Lord would just be... Have you
ever felt like, you think about yourself, you think, I must make
the Lord sick. I must nauseate him the way I am. And you just
feel so... Oh, you know what I'm saying
when I'm saying that. How can he look in favor on me?
But listen to me. If you're a believer, because
of the perpetuatory sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, he
took away God's reason for anger. God, the Holy God, does not have
a reason to be angry with you. He is appeased. There's nothing
to be mad at. The sin has been taken away.
The sin has been removed. The sin has been covered. The
sin has been put away. Through the death of Christ,
He removes our guilt. That's what propitiation means.
He removes our guilt. He doesn't have a reason to be
mad. He's propitious toward us. He's not mad at us. He sees nothing
but that which is pleasing to Him. Now, like I said, the only
way you can get a hold of that is by faith. The only way. But would to God
that everybody in this room would believe this. The Holy Lord God
doesn't have a reason to be mad at me. I'm without guilt before
Him. You see, the blood of Christ
took His reason for anger away. Now this blood that our Lord
shed, understand this. You think of the blood of Christ,
Him shedding His precious blood. The blood wasn't shed for you.
It was shed for God. For God to have something to
do with me, He first had to do something for Himself. He had
to take away His reason for anger, and that's what He did in the
blood of Christ. He took away His reason for anger. My sin
was placed upon Christ, Christ paid for it, and now there's
nothing there to be guilty about. God is propitiated, He is appeased. I think of that passage of Scripture
in Genesis chapter 22 where Abraham and his son Isaac are walking
up the mountain. And he knows that he's going
to sacrifice his son in obedience to God's commands. Isaac doesn't
know it. He hadn't told Isaac. And there they are walking up.
And can you imagine how heavy his heart must have been? And
his boy looked at him and said, Father. Here's the wood. Here's the fire. But where's
the lamb? Where's the lamb for a burnt
offering? And Abraham looked at his son
and he said, my son, God will provide himself a lamb for a
burnt offering. You see, God's the one who does
this providing this perpetuatory work. It's not something man
does to appease God. It's something God does to appease
God. He provides for Himself, not
for you, for Himself. And He provides Himself as the
propitiation, the Lamb of God. Let's turn to 1 John chapter
4. I want us to look at how this word is used in the New Testament,
1 John chapter 4. John says in verse 10. Herein is love. Not that we love God. If you were going to define love,
would you talk about your love to God? John said herein is love. If you want to know what it is,
here it is. Not that we love God, but that he loved us and
sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Now he sent his son not in response
Do our love to him, but his love to us. And he sent his son to
be the propitiation and he did make propitiation for our sins.
The reason for anger has been removed. I turn over to Romans
chapter three. We've already looked at this once, but let's
look at the whole passage. Romans chapter three. Remember
that word in verse 25, propitiation is translated a mercy seat in
Hebrews chapter nine. Now let's begin reading in verse
23 of Romans chapter 3. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. And let's look at the enormity
of the sin that he's talking about. Look back up in verse
10. As it's written, there's none righteous, no, not one.
There's none that understandeth. There's none that seeketh after
God. They're all gone out of the way. They've together become
unprofitable. There's none that doeth good. No, not one. Their throat is an open grave. With their tongues they've used
deceit. The poison of asps is under their
lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their
feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in
their ways. And the way of peace they've
not known. There is no fear of God before
their eyes." Now that's the sin he's talking about when he talks
about all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That's
the description of you and I by nature. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. But look what he says in verse
four. Being. Justified. I mean, not guilty. After that
horrible description of what I am by nature, the poison of
asps under my lips and so on, all of a sudden he says being
justified. He's not guilty. Freely. That means He didn't have to
find a reason in you to do it. Without a cause in you. Now this
gives me such hope. God doesn't have to find a reason
in me to justify me. He does it freely. By His grace. By His pure, sheer, unmerited
favor. I am plumb satisfied to be saved
sheerly by grace, aren't you? being justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom
God hath set forth, verse 25, whom God hath set forth. And
that word set forth means two things. First, it means foreordained. And second, it means conspicuously
displayed. And both of those meanings are
found in our text. Christ Jesus was foreordained
to be the mercy seek, to be the propitiation. He's called the
lame slain from the foundation of the world. That was God's
purpose for Him. And He's also set forth. He's
set forth in the mercy seat, isn't He? He's set forth in the
Old Testament Scriptures. He's being set forth right now
in the preaching of the Gospel, conspicuously displayed. If you're
a sinner, here's how you can be saved. Here's how God can
have communion with you and meet with you. This is how God can
embrace you, through the mercy seat, through the propitiation,
through Christ removing the reason for anger. He's been set forth
to be a propitiation by his death. He removed God's reason for anger
and he satisfied God. Look over in Romans chapter five,
verse 10. Romans five, verse 10. For if
when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death
of his son. Do you hear that? When were you
reconciled? when you were enemies. Before you did anything, before
you said, I'm sorry, before you confess your sins, before you
did anything. If when we were enemies, we were
reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more being reconciled. We should be saved by his life. We're reconciled to God by what
he did before we had any consciousness of what he did. Look in Colossians
chapter one. If you believe this, this is
gonna give you some confidence. And it's gonna give you some
boldness to come into God's presence. If you believe this, we were
reconciled to God by the death of his son. Colossians chapter
one, verse 20. And having made peace, having
made peace, he made it. Is that what it says? He made
peace. through the blood of His cross
by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself. By Him I say, whether
they be things in earth or things in heaven, and you that were
sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works,
yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through
death to present you holy and unblameable. and unreprovable
in his sight. Now that's what I call propitiation. His reason for anger is for nothing
to blame you of, nothing to reprove you for. Perfect in God's sight. And that happens through faith
in his blood, believing his death accomplished reconciliation. Now notice back in Romans 3.
whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith
in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission
of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. To declare,
I say at this time, His righteousness. Now, notice that word remission
in verse 25, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that
are passed. Now, that's not the word that's generally translated
remission, because remission means, you know, the remitting
of sins, the putting away of sins, the forgiveness of sins.
Here, the word is literally the passing over of sins. It's the
same thing as the Passover. When I see the blood, I'll pass
over you. Here, it is said that God's righteousness is declared
in just passing over sins. Now, my sin is most real. Like
I said, my sin is most real. Your sin is most real. How can
God just pass over it and declare His righteousness? How can that
be? Because that's what it says.
It declares to declare not His mercy, although His mercy is
seen here, His grace is seen here, His love is seen here,
but it says to declare His righteousness for the passing over sins. Now,
how can God be righteous in passing over my sins? Here's my little
girl. If somebody sins against her,
if somebody commits a crime against her, and the judge just says,
well, I'm just going to pass over, I'm going to get upset.
That wouldn't be right, would it? That wouldn't be just. I
want justice to be served. So how can God's righteousness
be declared in passing over sin? But here's how God passes over
my sin. It's because my sin was punished
in my substitute. And it's wiped out and there's
nothing there for Him to condemn me for. He's righteous in passing
by my sin. My sin's been put away. Does
this give you some confidence? Some confidence to come boldly
to the throne of grace? Because in Christ, you sin. has been put away. Look in 1
John chapter 2. Verse 1. My little children. These things
write I unto you that you sin not. And don't pass that by. What's God's will for your life?
For you to sin not. I was talking to a man about
two or three weeks ago, and he was asking me about salvation
by grace. And here was his response to
me after he heard what I said. He said, if I believed that,
I would sin without restraint. If I really believed what you
were saying. Why not? I mean, you're not going
to be punished for it. Why not? That's the response of a goat. That's all you can say. That's
the response of a goat. You know what a believer wants
to do? Never sin again. Now, these things write unto
you that you sin not. I don't want to say don't you
want to honor the Lord? To not sin. These things write
unto you that you sin not. And if any man sin. And that word if. Is translated
in First John chapter three, verse two as when, when you sin, you don't want
to sin. Your intention is not to sin.
When you do, when you do, when you do what? When any man sin,
we have an advocate, a lawyer, with the Father. Now, we had
this advocate before the sin, we have this advocate during
the sin, and we have this advocate after the sin. And there's nothing
you need to do in order to make his advocacy work. There's nothing
you need to do in order to get him to be your advocate. He is
your advocate. When you sin, we have. Do you hear that right now? We
have an advocate with the Father. We have a lawyer that's never
lost a case. And this lawyer, the judge is
his father. He's got pull with his father,
but he's Jesus Christ the righteous. He doesn't try to sweep our sin
under the carpet. We have an advocate with the
father and here's how he pleads for us. He doesn't say, oh, let
him get by again. I know he did it again, but for
my sake, let him get by, let him get, but no, he presents
the father, his hands and his feet. And the father says regarding
everybody he's an advocate for, they're not guilty. Their sin
has been propitiated. We have an advocate before the
Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous, and he is the propitiation, the
putting away, the appeasement of our sins, and not for ours
only, but also the sins of the whole world. I don't care who
it is. The only, wherever they are in the world, the only hope
anybody has is the propitiatory sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, I realize a lot of people say, well, doesn't that mean
that Christ died for everybody? No, it doesn't mean that way. Doesn't
mean that at all, but it does mean this, anybody in the world,
if you're going to be accepted by God, it's going to be through
the Lord Jesus Christ, the great advocate of the father. He's
the propitiation for our sins. Turn to Hebrews chapter two. Verse 17. Wherefore, in all things, it behooved him to be made like
unto his brethren. I'm his brother. The Lord Jesus
Christ calls me his little brother. You're his little sister. Isn't
it wonderful? He's not ashamed, the scripture
says, to call them brethren. He's not ashamed. He's not ashamed
to own me. Let's go on reading. Wherefore in all things it behooved
him to be made like unto his brethren. that he might be a
merciful and a faithful high priest in things pertaining to
God to make reconciliation. And that is the same word that's
translated propitiation to make reconciliation. And the idea
here that propitiation is the same thing. The reason for anger
is removed. When two people are reconciled,
they're not mad at each other anymore. They're brought together. Their differences have been taken
away. Christ Jesus made reconciliation
for the sins of His people. He made propitiation. He made
reconciliation. It says He made reconciliation. That means it's already been
made. It's not something way out there. It's something I already
possess. It's an all-sufficient reconciliation. Nothing else is needed for my
reconciliation before God. God's reconciled to me. He's
pleased with me. He's satisfied with me. This
is an all-sufficient reconciliation, and it's an immutable reconciliation. It never changes. This is where
God meets with the sinner, and the sinner is actually fit for
communion through this reconciliation. He made reconciliation. Look
back in Romans chapter 5. We've looked at this, but let's
take a verse further. Romans chapter 5. For if, when we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son." Now, how
much does your personal experience have to do with that? Isn't that wonderful? It doesn't
have anything to do with you, did it? If, when we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son. Much more. being reconciled,
we shall be saved by His life, His life before the Father. You
see, His life is my life before God. I am the resurrection and
the life. And this is where our confidence
comes from. My life is the life of Jesus Christ. That's my life
before God. And the only way I can say this
is because the Bible says it. He says, I am the way, the truth.
And what? The life, the only life. No man comes to the father, but
by me. When he comes to the father,
I do too. And his life is my life before
God. That's why I'm not worried about my life in that sense.
My life is the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how real
union with Christ is. We shall be saved by his life
and not only so, but we also, verse 11, joy in God. We also joy in God through our
Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have now received the atonement. We've received this reconciliation. We've received this atonement.
Now, how do you receive the atonement? How do you receive it? I mean,
it's, let me tell you how. Look in Romans chapter six, verse
11. Likewise, reckon yourselves also. Likewise, reckon ye also
yourselves to be dead. What's that next word? Indeed. Not forensically, not judicially, but really. dead indeed, not just talking
about it, not just a paper that says that's the way it is and
you believe it but you're still. No, reckon yourselves to be dead
indeed to sin. Now how in the world can I reckon
myself to be dead indeed to sin? Because I am, that's why. If God tells me to reckon myself
to be dead indeed to sin, it's because I am dead indeed to sin. My sin's been put away. I receive
the reconciliation. I receive the atonement. I believe
it. You know, right now at any rate, right now at any rate,
I believe I'm perfect before God. Hope I believe that tomorrow,
but I am whether I flounder with it or not. But right now, Right
now, while I'm talking to you, I believe I'm without sin before
God. And even when I say that, I'm
conscious of my sin. But the work of Christ, the atonement
of Christ is so real, so powerful, so pure, I am dead indeed to
sin. And I'm alive to God through
our Lord Jesus Christ. Now let's go to the only other
place this word propitious or propitiation is used in the scripture.
Turn to Luke chapter 18. It's what we're going to close
with. What a mercy seat we have. What
a wonderful aspect of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is identified
by His work as a mercy seat. This is who He is. This is the
Jesus Christ we worship, who we believe, who we love. Now
look in Luke chapter 18, verse nine. And he spake this parable
unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous. That's what self-righteousness
is. You somehow trust in yourself that you are righteous. And what do these folks do invariably? They despised others. You see,
self-righteous people always compare themselves with others
and they find somebody that they're a little bit better than, and
they can look down their nose upon. Verse two, 10, two men went up
into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other
a public. The Pharisee, the religious fella,
that means separated one. He stood and prayed. I love the way the Lord says
this, thus with himself. He wasn't praying to God, he
thought he was, but truly his prayers didn't get any, didn't
even make it to the ceiling. He prayed thus with himself. God, I thank thee. I'm giving God the credit. that I'm not as other men are,
extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. Now, there's one problem with
this guy's prayer. It was a lie on every account. He was unjust. He was an extortioner. He was an adulterer. He was just
like this. Actually, he's worse. And he
goes on to pray with himself. I fast twice in the week. Where
did God ever say to do that? I give tithes of all that I possess. Now we're given another scene.
And the publican standing afar off would not lift
up so much as his eyes unto heaven. But he smote upon his breast. That's where my problem is, this
wicked heart. I can't change it. He smote upon
his breast, saying, God be. See that word merciful. It is. Propitious. God be propitious. To me, the. Center. Now look what the Lord
says about this fella. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified. Without guilt. Perfect in my
sight. And beloved, I'm gonna go down
to my house tonight justified. Do you know everybody that has
prayed this prayer? And I know that people say you
need to quote the sinner's prayer and so on and don't even know
what it means. And you don't have to teach somebody. Somebody seeking
the Lord, they'll pray. They'll pray. You don't have
to coach them into praying. They'll pray. And this will be
their prayer. God be propitious. Be appeased
through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me be found
in Christ and nowhere else. Now, everybody that prays this
prayer, everybody with that exception, everybody that prays this prayer,
God be propitious. Be appeased through the blood
of your son. Let the blood of your son wipe away my sin. Let
me be clean before you through the blood of thy dear son. Everybody
who prays that prayer, They go down to their house justified. Amen. Let's pray.